Section 103 BNS: Punishment for Murder (Old IPC 302)

If you open a charge sheet filed after 1 July 2024, you won't find IPC 302 in it. Murder is now punished under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. For an ordinary murder case the punishment hasn't changed at all. What is new is a second sub-section that deals with killings by a mob, and a fix to the old rule for life convicts that the Supreme Court struck down forty years ago.

Here is what the section says, how it maps to the old numbers, and how a murder case moves from arrest to sentence.

What Section 103 says

The section has two parts.

• 103(1): whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine. This is IPC 302, word for word.
• 103(2): when a group of five or more people, acting together, commits murder on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any similar ground, each member of the group shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, and fine.

Section 103 only sets the punishment. Whether a killing counts as murder in the first place is decided under Section 101, which was IPC 300.

Old IPC numbers and their new BNS sections

The whole homicide chapter moved, so if you're reading an old judgment or an old FIR, this is the map:

For any other section, the IPC to BNS converter gives the new number and what changed in the wording.

When is a killing murder?

Every murder is culpable homicide, but not every culpable homicide is murder. Under Section 101, causing death is murder if the act was done:

1. with the intention of causing death;
2. with the intention of causing an injury the offender knows is likely to kill that particular person;
3. with the intention of causing an injury that is enough, in the ordinary course of nature, to cause death; or
4. knowing the act is so dangerous that it will in all probability cause death, and without any excuse for taking that risk.

Then come five exceptions. If one applies, the offence drops to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 105:

• grave and sudden provocation;
• going beyond the right of private defence, in good faith;
• a public servant going beyond their powers, in good faith;
• a sudden fight in the heat of passion, without premeditation;
• the person who died was over 18 and consented.

Most murder trials are fought on this line. The defence rarely argues that nobody died. It argues that the case fits an exception, or that there was no intention of the kind clauses (a) to (c) need.

Death or life: how the court decides

Life imprisonment is the rule and death is the exception. In Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab (1980) the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty but limited it to the "rarest of rare" cases, where the alternative of life imprisonment is "unquestionably foreclosed". Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab (1983) then grouped the kinds of cases that can qualify, looking at the manner of the killing, the motive, and the victim.

The court has to weigh mitigating factors as well: age, family background, mental health, conduct in jail, and the chance of reform. In Manoj v. State of Madhya Pradesh (2022) the Supreme Court said trial courts must collect this material before sentencing, not just mention it.

A death sentence passed by a Sessions Court can't be carried out until the High Court confirms it (Section 407 of the BNSS, old CrPC 366). After that there is an appeal to the Supreme Court, and then mercy petitions to the Governor and the President under Articles 161 and 72.

What "life imprisonment" means

It means jail for the rest of the convict's natural life, not 14 or 20 years. The Supreme Court said so in Gopal Vinayak Godse v. State of Maharashtra (1961). What people call "14 years" comes from remission: the state government can release a life convict early, but where death was a possible punishment, as in murder, not before they have served at least 14 years (Section 475 of the BNSS, old CrPC 433A).

Courts can also take remission off the table. In Union of India v. V. Sriharan (2015) a Constitution Bench held that the High Court or Supreme Court can impose life imprisonment with no remission for a fixed period, such as 25 or 30 years, or for the rest of the convict's life.

Section 104: murder by someone already serving life

IPC 303 said a life convict who commits murder "shall be punished with death". No other sentence was allowed. In Mithu v. State of Punjab (1983) the Supreme Court struck it down, because a mandatory death sentence takes away the court's duty to look at the facts of each case. For forty years after that the section sat in the IPC with no effect.

Section 104 of the BNS fixes that. It allows death or imprisonment for life, and it spells out that life here means the remainder of that person's natural life.

Section 103(2): mob lynching

This is the one real addition. The IPC had no separate provision for a killing by a mob, and in Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India (2018) the Supreme Court asked Parliament to make one.

Three things have to be shown: a group of five or more, acting in concert, and a killing on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or a similar ground. Once that is proved, every member of the group faces death or life imprisonment, whoever struck the fatal blow. A mob killing that doesn't fit those grounds, say over a land dispute, is still murder under 103(1) read with the rules on common intention and unlawful assembly.

Arrest, bail and trial in a murder case

• Murder is cognizable and non-bailable. Only a Court of Session can try it, and it can't be compounded, so a compromise between the families doesn't end the case.
• A magistrate generally can't release someone accused of an offence punishable with death or life (Section 480 of the BNSS). Regular bail is sought from the Sessions Court or the High Court under Section 483.
• If the investigation isn't finished and the charge sheet isn't filed within 90 days of remand, the accused gets a right to default bail under Section 187(3), old CrPC 167(2).
• Anticipatory bail under Section 482 of the BNSS is not barred for murder, but courts grant it in a murder case only when there is something unusual, like a clear sign of false implication.

Questions people ask

Reading a judgment that cites the old sections? The IPC 302 page shows the new section side by side with the old text.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the bare Act and speak to a lawyer about your own case.